The government has asked actor Imran Khan, who participated in the protests in Mumbai calling for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over his botched special intensive revision of the electoral rolls, to leave India.
This action comes without a word of acknowledgement from the Modi government on the widespread expressions of anger nationwide, despite police brutality on protesters.
The Foreigners Regional Registration Office served Khan, the nephew of superstar Aamir Khan, the notice saying he has to leave by October 28. Reports say that the FRRO has claimed that he has violated the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, by joining the protest against Gyanesh Kumar.
The FRRO is under the Bureau of Immigration, which is under Amit Shah’s Ministry of Home Affairs.
Reports say that the FRRO invoked Section 7 of the Act which empowers the Union government to issue orders to restrict the presence of foreigners in India, among other things.
It also invokes Section 29 of the Act which allows the government to order a foreigner’s removal.
“The FRRO has taken the action and a notice was served to the actor Imran Khan, who is [in India] on an OCI card. The actor nephew of Bollywood star Amir Khan stays in Khar and was served the notice,” Hindustan Times has quoted a Mumbai Police official as having said.
Khan was detained at the protest at Mumbai’s August Kranti Maidan on October 10. He posted a photograph of himself from inside the police van with the caption, “Apparently I’m going for a drive”.
The FRRO’s action comes after Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kirit Somaiya filed a complaint alleging that the actor, as a US citizen, cannot participate in a protest like this. Khan holds an Overseas Citizen of India or OCI card.
Khan is not the only one to have invited attention this way.
A day after thousands attended a rally in Bengaluru against the CEC Kumar, former Bengaluru top cop Bhaskar Rao publicised a letter in which he had asked the Union home ministry to verify YouTuber Dhruv Rathee’s ‘visa credentials’. Rathee was one of the attendees at the rally.
This story was originally published in The Wire.